Everything you do helps you get ahead

I am often asked why top awards like the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship place so much value on community service, or why we emphasize participating in events such as the upcoming London Health Research Day and Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competitions.

There are many reasons as to why getting involved in extracurricular activities matters, but I believe the main reason is that the goal of any advanced education experience should be to assist in the production of a well-rounded person who is capable of excelling in many areas.

I’m a developmental biologist, and nothing inspires me more than trying to understand how a single cell zygote can, nine months later, result in an amazing bundle of joy emerging into this world. But being a newborn is just a beginning as well, as life is a series of growth opportunities.

Your education is an ongoing developmental event that, if you are lucky, continues throughout your lifetime. Your education is punctuated by a mixture of formal and less formal experiences that collectively build your reservoirs of knowledge, experience and character that collectively define who you are as a person and impact what you will do throughout your lifetime.

Here are some ways extracurricular activities can impact your life:

They allow you to increase your overall skill set by exposing you to a diverse range of experiences and opportunities for learning;

They build self-confidence as you can become proficient in many situations and environments;

They can help build empathy as you interact with people from different walks of life, which allows you to gain a greater perspective on the overall human condition;

They can contribute greatly to increasing your personal satisfaction and enjoyment, creating a greater sense of purpose and meaning in your life;

They can build resilience and adaptability which are key characteristics for finding success;

They foster essential skills such as work-life balance, time management, oral and written communication, and can instil project management, mentorship and supervisory opportunities;

They contribute to building your network and provide you with an opportunity to build a diverse group of colleagues which, in turn, reinforces all of the above benefits;

They can place your work and skills into a context where the importance of what you are doing and what your research is contributing to becomes self-evident, reinforcing that your efforts contribute on both local and global levels;

They contribute to the building of individuals with good moral judgement and people with good character.

Collectively these positive takeaways contribute to the generation of successful leaders that are experts in their fields but also well-rounded individuals with strong social values, ethics and desires to improve conditions in this world and advance human quality of life.

I know this sounds like pretty heady stuff, but building a well-rounded person ready to take on the world is a lifelong process. We believe that your undergraduate and graduate education should construct a solid foundation for that process to enact itself throughout your life.

Become experts in your research area, become interested in a couple of charities, and make sure you submit your abstract for consideration for presentation at this year’s London Health Research Day and sign up for the upcoming 3MT competition. I want to learn about your research, as does the whole Schulich Medicine & Dentistry community.

Get out there, have fun with extracurricular activities, and build a great life.